Category Archives: Down

Pagan Inspiration


On 6th-7th January 1839 Ireland was struck by what subsequently became known as the Night of the Big Wind. Such was the ferocity of the hurricane-force gales that many buildings throughout the country suffered damage, one of these being the Presbyterian Church in Portaferry, County Down. Originally dating from 1694 but almost entirely rebuilt in 1751, in the aftermath of the storm this structure was left in such a poor state of repair that services could no longer be held there. Accordingly the decision was taken to demolish the older church and erect a new one of the same site. The architect given the task was Belfast-born John Millar, known to have spent time in the office of Thomas Hopper in London before returning to this country. Millar’s brother was a Presbyterian minister, which explains why, between 1829 and 1839, he had been given commissions to design a number of other Presbyterian churches in Ulster. His later life seems to have been blighted by misfortune. According to an entry in the online Dictionary of Irish Architects (www.dia.ie) , after being declared bankrupt in 1854 he went to Australia, then returned home before leaving again for Australia the following year: on this second voyage, his ship was wrecked off the coast. Moving to New Zealand, he was appointed engineer to the town board of Dunedin, dismissed from the post in 1864, reinstated and then dismissed again. That same year he also lost all his possessions when his house was burned down. He died in 1876, of ‘hepatic disease, dropsy and exhaustion’. The DIA describes him as ‘a man of extravagant claims, exuberant schemes and quixotic behaviour.’  




From the start, the Portico Church won plaudits. In 1842, barely a year after it had opened for services, the local Down Recorder enthused, ‘The style of architecture which Mr Millar has adopted is that which prevailed in Greece during the architectural age of Pericles; its dimensions are sufficiently large to produce an impression of grandeur and sublimity.’ More recently, in 1970 J.S Curl commented that the building ‘would not look out of place in Helsinki or Leningrad [St Petersburg]. Indeed, this marvellous Greek temple is one of the most distinguished Neoclassical buildings in Ulster, and is in the first rank of Neoclassical designs in the whole of the British Isles.’ Various alterations have been made to the building since first constructed, not all of them necessarily beneficial; for example, at some date in the early 20th century, probably owing a problem with damp, the exterior was painted. Also in the last century, coloured glass was introduced into the windows, thereby disrupting the purity of the interior’s light. Clearly the local congregation in the 1840s must have been substantial, given the scale of the church (its predecessor seemingly had 90 seats in the aisle and another 14 in a gallery). However, in more recent decades the number attending services declined sharply and in consequence the building began to suffer from neglect. Happily in 2015 responsibility for the church was taken on by a charity, ‘Portico Ards’, which then raised £1.6 million for its complete restoration (thanks to support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and over 30 other grant raiders). While it continues to serve its original purpose on Sunday mornings, holding services for members of the Presbyterian faith, today the building also functions as an arts and heritage centre, hosting a wide variety of cultural activities.
Built at a cost of £1,999 and formally opened by Rev. Henry Cooke in September 1841, Portaferry’s Portico Church, as it’s known, is a building of very distinctive and rather unexpected character. Many of Millar’s designs for other Presbyterian communities had been classical in style, but this is something else again. The primary source of inspiration was the Temple of Nemesis, built c.460-420 BC in Rhamnous, an ancient Greek city on the north-eastern coast of Attica. The church’s north-west and south-east pedimented facades are almost identical, the former providing the main entrance to the interior via steps that lead into a porch set between the Doric columns, derived from those of the Temple of Apollo at Delos.  Six monumental columns, tapered and showing entasis, rest on top of the ground floor and rise unfluted to the entablature which encircles the structure. Clearly not based on ancient models but meeting the requirements of the congregation, the building’s glazed enclosures accommodate a vestibule for the gallery at one end and an organ chamber at the other. The church’s base takes the form of a battered podium. On the south-east side, the two outermost columns rest on battered corners bases separate from the main support; the open portion thus created by these separate bases permits access to smaller doorways into the building. Also on this side and set between the two central columns is what appears to be a miniature temple: inside this accommodates a staircase allowing the minister taking services to ascend to the pulpit. 




From the start, the Portico Church won plaudits. In 1842, barely a year after it had opened for services, the local Down Recorder enthused, ‘The style of architecture which Mr Millar has adopted is that which prevailed in Greece during the architectural age of Pericles; its dimensions are sufficiently large to produce an impression of grandeur and sublimity.’ More recently, in 1970 J.S Curl commented that the building ‘would not look out of place in Helsinki or Leningrad [St Petersburg]. Indeed, this marvellous Greek temple is one of the most distinguished Neoclassical buildings in Ulster, and is in the first rank of Neoclassical designs in the whole of the British Isles.’ Various alterations have been made to the building since first constructed, not all of them necessarily beneficial; for example, at some date in the early 20th century, probably owing a problem with damp, the exterior was painted. Also in the last century, coloured glass was introduced into the windows, thereby disrupting the purity of the interior’s light and the first organ installed. Clearly the local congregation in the 1840s must have been substantial, given the scale of the church (its predecessor seemingly had 90 seats in the aisle and another 14 in a gallery). However, in more recent decades the number attending services declined sharply and in consequence the building began to suffer from neglect. Happily in 2015 responsibility for the church was taken on by a charity, ‘Portico Ards’, which then raised £1.6 million for its complete restoration (thanks to support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and over 30 other grant raiders). While it continues to serve its original purpose on Sunday mornings, holding services for members of the Presbyterian faith, today the building also functions as an arts and heritage centre, hosting a wide variety of cultural activities and thereby ensuring that it has a viable future.  

Well Fort



Hillsborough Fort, County Down has been considered here before (see Hillsborough Fort « The Irish Aesthete) but on that occasion the Irish Aesthete was unable to gain access to the building at its centre. Completed c.1650 by Colonel Arthur Hill, the little square forthouse was Gothicised just over a century later, perhaps to the designs of Christopher Myers and, having been a place of defence became instead a place of delight, used for entertainments. Inside, the ground floor consists of a narrow entrance hall with vaulted ceiling, doors to front and rear, and a number of small rooms on either side. A staircase in one of the flanking towers leads upstairs to a great chamber occupying the entire space, lit by three arched windows and with a high flat roof. At the moment, the building sits empty but there plans are afoot for its restoration and reuse.


A Rare Insight


Lisburn, County Antrim was originally called Lisnagarvy (from the Irish Lios na gCearrbhach, meaning Ringfort of the Gamesters) and until the early 17th century was under the control of the O’Neill family. However, the Ulster Plantations meant this part of the country, a territory called Killultagh, passed into the hands of an English adventurer, Sir Fulke Conway, younger son of Sir John Conway of Warwickshire. As early as 1611, Lord Carew who was then passing through the area could write, ‘In our travel from Dromore towards Knockfargus, we saw in Kellultagh upon Sir Fulke Conway’s lands a house of cagework in hand and almost finished, where he intends to erect a bawn of brick in a place called Lisnagarvagh. He has built a fair timber bridge over the river of Lagan near the house.’ Sir Fulke died childless in 1624 and left the lands he had acquired to his older brother, Sir Edward Conway, a soldier and politician who three years later was created Viscount Conway in the English peerage, and Viscount Killultagh in the Irish peerage; a member of the Privy Council and a Secretary of State, in the years prior to his death in 1631 he served as Lord President of the Council. His heir, also called Edward, the second viscount was also a soldier and politician but also an ardent bibliophile: his library in Ireland contained between 8,000 and 9,000 books. On his death in 1655, the estates and titles passed to the third Edward who in 1679 was created first Earl of Conway. He was also the last because, having no heir despite being married three times, on his death the titles became extinct. His property, on the other hand, passed to an eight-year old first-cousin once removed, with the stipulation that he take the surname of the deceased; accordingly, Lisburn and the surrounding lands were inherited by the wonderfully-named Popham Seymour-Conway. Alas, while not yet 25, he was mortally wounded in a drunken duel, and so once more the estates were passed on, this time to his younger brother, Francis Seymour-Conway, who in due course became  Baron Conway of Ragley and Baron Conway of Killultagh in the respective national peerages. In turn, his son was created Marquess of Hertford, and when his descendant, the fourth marquess, died in 1870, he left the greater part of his estate (anything not entailed) to his secretary and illegitimate son, Sir Richard Wallace whose widow, in turn, bequeathed the family’s extraordinary art collection to the English nation, hence the Wallace Collection in London. 




Meanwhile, back in the early 17th century, as has been noted, Sir Fulke Conway began to build a substantial house, known as Lisburn Castle, on his Irish lands. This was in Lisburn, on a site above the river Lagan beside which he laid out the town, arranging for the construction of a market house and square, as well as a new church and several residential streets: settlers from England and Wales were then encouraged to move there. Inevitably, in the early 1640s the town was attacked during the Confederate Wars but survived and continued to flourish; in the aftermath of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) large numbers of Huguenots moved here and helped to develop the linen trade, of which Lisburn became the most important centre in Ireland. A terrible fire ravaged the centre of the town in 1707 but it was soon rebuilt and returned to prosperity. The only building of importance not reconstructed in the aftermath of the conflagration was the Conway residence above the Lagan. By this time, the property had passed into the hands of the Seymour-Conways, who were absentee landlords and therefore there was no need for them to have a residence in Ireland. 




Because it was destroyed by fire in 1707, the character and appearance of the Conway residence in Lisburn is unknown. However, what do survive are some of the outer walls of the site and a series of terraced gardens that led down to the banks of the Lagan. These gardens were laid out by Edward Conway, third viscount (and first earl) who appears to have been particularly interested in his Irish property. In 1656, a year after the death of his father, he brought over a Dutch gardener to create four terraces on the south-east facing slope that led from the building to the river. These terraces had retaining walls constructed of stone fronted with red brick, and the top of them would likely have been lined with pots containing colourful flowers: in 1667, Lord Conway imported twelve dozen such pots from Ostend. Each terrace was laid out with beds for growing fruit, vegetables and flowers, with a lower one planted as an orchard growing a variety of different apples. The terraces also held a broad gravel path, at the end of one of them being a ‘Dutch tent’, presumably some kind of summerhouse. Again in 1667, Conway ordered some 7,000 painted tiles from Holland for its interior, but only 3,000 of them survived the journey unbroken; his agent advised, ‘a very dear commodity they prove and in these scarce times I think your Lordship may better lay out or keep your money.’ The topmost terrace featured a double-flight stone perron beneath which was a grotto of some kind, with an arched entrance. In the aftermath of the 1707 fire and the failure to reconstruct Lisburn Castle – the site of which eventually became, and remains, a public park, with a late 19th century monument to Sir Richard Wallace at its centre –  these terraced gardens were neglected and fell into dilapidation. However, in 2006-09, the area was excavated and restored, so that now it looks not unlike what Lord Conway intended when he undertook the work in the mid-17th century. Today, they provide a rare insight into horticultural design and practice in Stuart Ireland. 

Son’s Love Built Me



Helen’s Tower, here I stand,
Dominant over sea and land.
Son’s love built me, and I hold
Mother’s love in letter’d gold.
Love is in and out of time,
I am mortal stone and lime.
Would my granite girth were strong
As either love, to last as long
I should wear my crown entire
To and thro’ the Doomsday fire,
And be found of angel eyes
In earth’s recurring Paradise.

Helen’s Tower, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson




A granddaughter of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, in 1825 18-year old Helen Sheridan married the Hon Price Blackwood who, although a third son, would become fourth Baron Dufferin and Claneboye owing to the deaths of his two older brothers. The groom’s parents opposed the match, having hoped for a better, more wealthy bride than the beautiful but impoverished Helen Sheridan whose father had died when she was ten, leaving behind a widow and three daughters who lived in a grace-and-favour apartment in Hampton Court Palace. The Blackwoods had one child, a son called Frederick, and lived in London until he inherited the family title and estate in Ireland in 1839. Two years later, Price Dufferine died, having been accidentally prescribed an overdose of morphine by a pharmacist. Like her mother before her, Lady Dufferin was now left a widow, her only son Frederick then aged 15. The two remained close for the next 26 years, until her own death in 1867. Long before then, in 1848 the young Lord Dufferin had embarked on the construction of a tower on his estate at Clandeboye, near Bangor, County Down. Designed by Scottish architect William Burn, unsurprisingly the building is in the baronial style, of four storeys leading up to a flat, turreted roof that offers superlative views of the surrounding countryside. A porch at the base which provides access to the tower carries a date stone with the year 1850, along with a coronet and two opposed Ds with an ampersand between them, representing the Dufferin title. However, despite carrying this date, the building does not appear to have been finished, until the early 1860s when it was fitted with an interior stone spiral staircase giving access to the upper floors and roof. A room on the second floor has a coffered ceiling, the panels of which are painted with circular inscriptions enclosing coronets and crests. Above this is the oak-panelled library with a ribbed groin vaulted ceiling, the centre of which concludes in a pendant. When completed, the building was named Helen’s Tower, in honour of Lord Dufferin’s mother, who was herself a talented writer and poet. As a result, her son invited a number of the most famous poets of the period – among them Tennyson and Browning – to write verses about Helen Dufferin and her tower: many of these were then engraved on metal plates which can still be seen on the walls of the library. 




Who hears of Helen’s Tower, may dream perchance
How the Greek Beauty from the Scaean Gate
Gazed on old friends unanimous in hate,
Death-doom’d because of her fair countenance.
Hearts would leap otherwise, at thy advance,
Lady, to whom this Tower is consecrate!
Like hers, thy face once made all eyes elate,
Yet, unlike hers, was bless’d by every glance.
The Tower of Hate is outworn, far and strange:
A transitory shame of long ago,
It dies into the sand from which it sprang;
But thine, Love’s rock-built Tower, shall fear no change:
God’s self laid stable earth’s foundations so,
When all the morning-stars together sang.

Helen’s Tower, by Robert Browning. 



Helen’s Tower is now managed by the Irish Landmark Trust and offered for short-term lets, see: Helen’s Tower | Self Catering Accommodation in Bangor, Co Down (irishlandmark.com)

On the Game



Buried in woodland to the north of the main house, this is an early 19th century gothick lodge at Mount Stewart, County Down. Known as the ‘Gamekeeper’s House’, the building is thought to have been constructed around 1810 or possibly a little later and was given the appearance of a miniature fort, thanks to crenellations along the top and the little pyramidal finials at each corner. Above the pointed arch windows and entrance are blind quatrefoils, another fanciful detail. Inside, there are just two rooms, each with a vaulted ceiling rising the full height of the house: the gabled timber porch was a late 19th century addition. This charming lodge was used by a hunting syndicate until about six years ago, but is now standing empty and, alas, falling into disrepair. 


A Considerable Place of Strength


‘This family is originally of Norman extraction and was anciently called De La Montagne. In the reign of King Edward III, its members were styled Hill, alias De La Montagne; but in succeeding ages, they were known by the name of Hill only.
Sir Moyses Hill, Knt. (descended from the family of Hill, of Devonshire, two members of which were judges of England at the beginning of the 15th century, and one lord mayor of London, anno 1484), went over to Ireland as a military officer, with the Earl of Essex, in 1573, to suppress O’Neill’s rebellion; and was subsequently appointed governor of Olderfleet Castle, an important fortress at the period, as it protected the harbour of Larne from the invasion of the Scots. Sir Moyses represented the county of Antrim in the parliament of 1613, and having distinguished himself during a long life, both as a soldier and a magistrate, died in February 1629-30, and was succeeded by his elder son Peter Hill esq but we pass to his younger son Arthur who eventually inherited the estates on the demise of Peter’s only son Francis Hill esq of Hill Hall, without male issue.
The said Arthur Hill esq of Hillsborough, was colonel of a regiment in the service of King Charles I, and he sate in parliament under the usurpation of Cromwell, as well as after the Restoration, when he was sworn of the privy council…’
From A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire by John Burke, Esq. (1833)





‘Hillsborough: This place, originally called Cromlyn, derived its present name from a castle erected by Sir Arthur Hill in the reign of Chas. I, which at the time of the Restoration, was made a royal fortress by Chas. II, who made Sir Arthur and his heirs hereditary constables, with twenty warders and a well-appointed garrison. The castle if of great strength and is defended by four bastions commanding the road from Dublin to Belfast and Carrickfergus; it is still kept up as a royal garrison under the hereditary constableship of the present Marquess of Downshire, a descendant of the founder, and is also used as an armory for the yeomanry.’
From A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland by Samuel Lewis (1837) 





‘Colonel Hill, having built within a few years, at his own charge, and upon his own lands, during the rebellion, for the encouragement of an English plantation and security of the country, a considerable place of strength, called Hillsborough fortified with four bastions, or flankers, commanding the chief roads in the county of Down leading from Dublin to Belfast and Carrickfergus; His Majesty was pleased to consider that the surprise thereof, upon any insurrection, might prove very prejudicial to his service, and how much it would conduce to His Majesty’s service and the safety of the country that a guard should be placed in that fort for the security thereof; he therefore granted a patent at Westminster for erecting it into a royal garrison by the name of Hillsborough Fort, with a Constable and officers to command it, to be called and known by the name of Constable of Hillsborough Fort, and twenty warders to be nominated and chosen by him; the Constable to have an allowance of 3s. 2d. a day and the warders 6d. each; and this office was granted to him, his heirs and assigns, for ever.’
From Historical Notices of Old Belfast and its Vicinity; A Selection from the Mss. collected by William Pinkerton, Edited with notes by Robert M Young (1896)

A Bit of a Sham


The  sham fort at Tyrella, County Down. This charming little folly stands on a rise above the main house and with views across the surrounding countryside and seascape. It is believed to date from the mid-19th century, being created to accommodate three cannon rescued after the SS Great Britain – at the time the world’s largest passenger ship – ran aground on a nearby beach in 1846 (seemingly the ship’s crew mistook the newly constructed St John’s Point Lighthouse for a lighthouse on the Isle of Man).

In Circles


In the gardens at Castlewellan, County Down: a large stone circular pool with fountain at its centre. The grounds here were laid out during the second half of the 19th century by the fourth Earl Annesley and then by his brother, the fifth earl who succeeded to title and estate in 1974. Both were keen plantsmen, responsible for establishing many of the rare species which can still be found on the site today, although some of its other features have since been lost, such as a series of 19 greenhouses, five of which were set aside for the cultivation of orchids. Below is a photograph of another pool, this one at the centre of the walled garden which has undergone extensive restoration in recent years.

Highly Idiosyncratic



‘We are situated on the southern shore of the narrow peninsula of the Ards… The House faces almost due south and is but a stone’s throw away from the salt water Lough Strangford…The eastern shore of the Ards is on the Irish Sea and Belfast Lough sweeps right round the northern shore far inland. So narrow is the space between the head of Strangford Lough and that of Belfast Lough that Mount Stewart…experiences island conditions. The climate is sub-tropical…in hot weather we always have extremely heavy dews at night. We do not have an excessive rainfall…we get all the sun of the east coast with its drier conditions…the Gulf Stream running up the Irish Sea washes the shores all round the promontory.’
From a Foreword to The Mount Stewart Garden Guide Book written by Edith, Lady Londonderry, 1957.






In the care of the National Trust since the mid-1950s, Mount Stewart, County Down contains one of the most famous, as well as one of the most idiosyncratic, gardens in these islands. The land on which this stands were first purchased by Alexander Stewart in 1744. Both house and owners were gradually aggrandised, the latter eventually becoming Vane-Tempest-Stewarts, Marquesses of Londonderry. Thanks to their ownership of collieries in County Durham, they became fantastically rich in the 19th century, with Mount Stewart being just one of many properties they owned, the best-known being Londonderry House on London’s Park Lane. Mount Stewart was thus only intermittently occupied by the family and Edith, seventh Marchioness would recall that when she first visited there at the start of the last century ‘the dampest, darkest, and saddest place I had ever stayed in, in the winter. Large Ilex trees almost touched the house in some places and sundry other big trees blocked out all light and air.’ She would be responsible for transforming the site into the extraordinary gardens that can be seen there still today. Although her own designer, she was ably assisted in the enterprise by a small team, not least Mount Stewart’s head gardener Thomas Bolas, who had trained at Chatsworth and who, as she noted was ‘able and willing to carry out designs from the roughest plans, and together he and I have worked out the designs, whether of buildings, walls or flower-beds, on the actual sites.’ It was Bolas who understood the particular climate conditions in this part of the country – ample sunshine and not too much rainfall – and knew how best to exploit them. As Neil Porteous – who has been responsible for a sensational restoration of the gardens in recent years, thanks to the mild climate, Edith Londonderry and her team were able ‘to amass an unrivalled collection of rare and tender plants from across the globe, and experiment with bold and exuberant planting schemes.’ Bold and exuberant might be a polite term for eccentric, since Mount Stewart is quite unlike any other garden and yet, like all true eccentrics, convinces thanks to the courage of its own convictions. But before these could be put into effect, the place first had to be made ready. Fortunately when this transformation got underway in the years following the end of the First World War, Edith Londonderry was able to provide work for the demobilised locals who would otherwise have faced unemployment, and she thus found the ample manpower needed to embark on such a large-scale project.






Mount Stewart is divided into a series of compartments (they really are too large for the currently fashionable word ‘room’ to be applicable here) each with its own distinctive character. Outside the west side of the house and approached across a generous flagged terrace is the sunken garden, laid out in the early 1920s and in some respects the most traditional part of the site. A pergola runs around three sides of the lawn reached via flights of stone steps, with the corners shaved off to provide densely planted beds of flowering plants. Beyond the sunken garden one begins to get a better sense of Edith Londonderry’s highly distinctive approach to horticultural design. This is the Shamrock Garden, centred on a 14 foot high topiary harp in yew. The space is enclosed within a hedge of similar height, the top of which featured a range of fantastical topiary creatures, since lost although there are plans to recreate many of them. Meanwhile, laid out on the ground in annual bedding plants is a giant red hand of Ulster. Moving to the rear of the house, one reaches the south-facing Italianate garden, inspired by those Edith Londonderry had seen on visits to such Renaissance sites as the Boboli Gardens in Florence and those at the Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola. Immediately below is the Spanish Garden, the source of its inspiration being the Moorish palaces of Andalusia; one of the most distinctive features here are the flanking arcades of cypress, evoking memories of the ancient world’s aqueducts. The break between Italian and Spanish Gardens is marked by a number of herms, also inspired by those found in classical and Renaissance gardens but in this instance featuring the faces of Circe, the mythological sorceress who bewitched sailors and turned them into the animals – also portrayed here. In 1915 Edith Londonderry and her husband had founded the private Ark Club, its membership composed of friends and admirers who would meet weekly in their London house. As a result of the power she exerted over this group, Edith came to be known as Circe, hence her presence in the grounds of Mount Stewart. Similarly, the other participants in the club were given names, and they are likewise found around the gardens in these whimsical guises, especially on the Dodo Terrace which was developed to the east of the Italian Garden. Here can be seen many well-known figures of the inter-war years. among them, Lord Londonderry as Charley the Cheetah, Winston Churchill Winston the Warlock, while Lady Lavery became Hazel the Hen, John Buchan John the Buck and Sir Philip Sassoon Philip the Phoenix. All of them were portrayed by another of the Mount Stewart team, Thomas Beattie, a local stonemason who in this instance used an early form of cast concrete for his work. The employment of such a material rather than something more orthodox unlines the decidedly unconventional, and yet successful, character of Mount Stewart.


 

A Welcome End



Montalto, County Down 

Even before the year draws to a welcome close, all language used to describe 2020 has become hopelessly cliched, so let us merely say that its passing will not be much mourned. A lot of what has appeared on this site over the past twelve months has also not been especially cheering, since so much of Ireland’s architectural heritage remains imperilled, vulnerable to the twin risks of neglect and abuse. However, there have been a few happy stories to tell, so today here are some of them again, as a reminder that the past year has not been entirely a period of darkness and gloom: occasional shafts of sunlight were to be seen. Fingers crossed, and glasses raised later this week, that there will be many more such shafts during 2021.



Fruit Hill, County Wexford



Castle Oliver, County Limerick



Browne’s Hill, County Carlow



Kilshane, County Tipperary 

The Irish Aesthete will be taking a break for the rest of the week, returning here refreshed and ready for 2021 next Monday, January 4th. In the meantime, Happy New Year to all friends and followers. Stay safe, stay well.